TenderWise and you - it's a two-way partnership

Creating a successful tender response is a complex and collaborative process. A tender response writer can play a pivotal role, not just in crafting a document but in forging a partnership with their clients to produce the most compelling bid possible. Here’s a closer look at how TenderWise collaborates effectively with our clients to achieve success:

1. Understanding your needs and goals

The first step in the partnership is for us to fully understand your business, the specific project, and what you hope to achieve by winning the bid. This involves detailed discussions, reviews of previous tenders, and a thorough understanding of your industry and market position.

2. Gathering information

Collecting all necessary information is crucial for success. Whether your a sole trader or a publicly listed company, we’ll coordinate with your or your people to gather accurate and pertinent data. Out tender team ensure that all documentation and project requirements are met and aligns them with your capabilities and goals.

3. Strategic planning

Once the information is gathered, our tender writers work with you to develop a strategy. This includes deciding how to best meet the tender requirements, how to differentiate you from your competitors, and how to clearly communicate your value proposition. Strategic planning also involves setting timelines and deadlines, ensuring that the response is crafted well before the submission date.

4. Drafting the response

With a strategy in place, our tender writer begins drafting the response. This includes writing clear, persuasive, and compliant text that aligns with the tender requirements. The tender writer also works on highlighting your strengths, and uniquely positioning them in the response to maximise impact.

5. Review and refinement

The draft response is sent to you at least 2 days prior to the submission deadline so you can review it in full. Feedback is essential, so we can incorporate and changes and fine-tuning the document based on your review (although in our experience, 95% of our clients require no or very few changes).

6. Finalisation and submission

Once the tender response is polished, it undergoes a final review to ensure all requirements are met and that it presents you in the best possible light. Usually we require you to submit the tender response through the tender portal yourself, but if you get stuck we can certainly manage the submission process for you (we’ll obviously need your tender portal login details to do this)

7. Post-submission support

After the tender is submitted, our tender writing team can help you to respond t any questions the tender issuer may have, prepare for presentations or interviews. This support can be crucial, especially in high-value tenders where the final decision may involve an interview or presentation stage.

FInal thoughts

Throughout the process, our tender response writer will act as a navigator and collaborator, ensuring that your tender submission documents are not only compliant and timely, but also compelling. By effectively partnering with our clients, TenderWise can play an integral role in enhancing your chances of winning bids, thereby contributing to your overall business growth and success.

Just give Pauline a call on 0400 514 579 or shoot an email to pauline@tenderwise.com.au and we’ll get right back to you!

Didn’t win that tender submission? Ask for feedback!

None of us likes to lose, especially when you’ve put lots of time and effort (not to mention bucks if you’ve paid for professional help) into creating a tender submission. Although, as hard as it is to miss out, this is a golden opportunity to seek feedback so you can get some clues as to what you could do better next time.

Not all organisations will provide feedback, but you'll never know if you don't ask! Suppose your tender submission was for a local Council contract. In that case, it's also a good idea to search on the Council website for the minutes of the Councillor's monthly meetings - these are always publicly available and usually include a section relating to the outcome of tenders (aka who won what and why).

The level of feedback offered will vary substantially depending on who issued the tender. Some may offer a face-to-face debrief designed to provide honest feedback and insights on what parts of your tender letter could have been improved. This information is gold for your business, so use it well.

Other tender issuers may provide a ranking score against each evaluation criterion for all tenders received. Sometimes this will list all tenderers and their scores by name, and sometimes this will list all tenderers, with everyone but your business listed with a generic name (e.g., Company 1, Company 2, etc.).

Either way, it’s an excellent opportunity to see where you sat amongst your competitors and what areas let you down. If you don’t get much information, but you do get the chance to ask questions, it’s always good to know:

1. Who won the tender submissions? It will help you better understand your competition.

2. How many were received, and where did you rank? It’s always a good thing to know where you sit amongst your competitors so you know your relative position.

3. How you scored against the evaluation criteria, and whether there were any areas where you didn’t meet the standards required or made mistakes.

4. What areas the evaluation panel felt you should improve on next time?

Once you have this information, you’ll know what let you down and what you should improve when you start your next tender submission.  Any feedback should provide you with valuable insights, and it’s important to share this with your team as soon as you can so they can start working on creating updated content.

If you need a hand, I’m here to help, and I’ve also written my professional tender writing tips, which are free to anyone who wants them - just fill in the form on my home page, give me a call on 0400 514579 or shoot me an email to pauline@tenderwise.com.au. I’m also happy to provide you with a review of your unsuccessful tender - obligation and cost-free.

In the meantime, happy tendering!

Pauline

Here's how to respond to a tender for work successfully

Whether it's your first time tendering for work or you're already a veteran in the industry, the goal remains the same — to be successful. But the tender response process can be complex and daunting to many. If you don't do it correctly, success may be hard to reach. 

However, with the right strategy, you can successfully win that contract. What's more — you'll also gain recognition that can open more doors and opportunities for your business — and all it takes is to win one major contract, whether commercial or government.

Here’s how to tender for work successfully.

Evaluate your business

Before you even look for a tender that’s right for you, the first thing you need to do is evaluate what your business can do to make you stand out from all of your competitors. Analyse your company’s turnover history, experience, goal, and what you need to do to achieve that goal. Consider whether you will be able to take on more work with your existing staff and plant or if you need to bring on more resources to accommodate more work.

Prepare your Capability Statement

Now that you know what your company is capable of, it’s time to put it all into writing. Not all tenders for work will ask to see a copy of your Capability Statement. Still, it’s a good idea to have one — and it’s helpful to send along with any general proposals, quotes, or pitches for business that you may send out.

Seek the right opportunities

When looking for opportunities, looking for the right ones for your business is vital. A question to ask yourself is if you can meet the technical skills and experience requirements of the work you have your eyes on.

Make sure also that you’re getting all those opportunities. Register with the tendering websites to get alerts when a tender relevant to your business is released. The easiest way to find the tender websites pertinent to your location is to simply do a Google search for the type of tender work you’re looking for and then sign up.

Be warned, though — some sites are subscription-based and can be pretty expensive, but most Government tenders will be free.

If you’re looking for work from your local Council, check their website; it will have a link to wherever they advertise their tenders. A question to ask yourself is if you can meet the technical skills and experience requirements of the work you have your eyes on.

Read and fully understand the tender requirements

While you may think it’s the best-suited bid submission for you based on the headline and summary of work, reading it and fully understanding it will allow you to know the requirements. Can you comply with those requirements? Are there pre-qualification requirements? What do you think are your chances? These and more are the things you need to consider to ensure success.

Write your winning tender response

Now, the fun but challenging part! Sure, you can always write a tender response yourself or hire a tender writer. But doing it to win it is a different story. Whatever industry you belong to, some elements remain the same when writing your tender.

Here are some tips for you:

• Be confident

  Your tender response should be able to demonstrate that you're confident you can do the perfect job for them. So, refrain from using vague phrases, such as "We think", "We can", or "We believe", and write more assertive terms, such as "We will", indicating that you're 100% sure of your capabilities to benefit their company should your tender submission wins.

• Keep it straight to the point

  Keep in mind that your tender issuer will be reading plenty of responses, so don’t let them get lost in information overload. Include only the most relevant information, and keep it concise and straight to the point.

• Specify what’s in it for them

  Remember that it’s not about you. It’s all about the tender issuer, so you have to make sure that you clearly state what the benefits are if they choose to offer that contract to your business.

• Avoid these tendering mistakes

• Lastly, proofread, proofread, proofread,

Submit it and win it!

Once all of these steps are done, you’re now ready to submit your awesome tender response submission. But tendering for work is everything but easy if you’re new to it. Tendering can be complex, time-consuming, and pretty daunting. I hope that these tips can help guide you through how to tender for work successfully. But if you need some assistance, TenderWise is here to help. Just give Pauline a call for a chat on 0400 514579 , email me at pauline@tenderwise.com.auau, or contact us here.

To Bid or Not to Bid? That is the Question!

So you've seen a tender opportunity that looks like it might be a good fit for your business. The question of whether to bid or not to bid arises.

But writing a good tender response takes a lot of time and effort - so it's important to have a solid strategy to help you determine whether or not this particular tender is worth putting in a response to.

Here's a few simple tips to help you decide whether or not this is a good opportunity

The Contract

If you win the bid, you will be bound by the conditions of the contract for the term of the contract. It is usually a good thing! But make sure you've read the tender submission contract thoroughly to ensure there aren't any deal breakers in there for you. Pay particular attention to the payment terms to ensure they suit the cash flow requirements of your business.

The Location

Is location important? If the contract is located in your city and you're happy to travel from one end to the other to get the job done, then that's great! But if it doesn't make good financial sense for you to travel potentially hundreds of kilometres a day to perform work, then maybe this isn't a good fit for you.

Anticipated Return

Many businesses will only go through the tender response process if the potential contract value is worth pursuing. But sometimes, it's worth chasing a contract with a lower total value than you usually bid for. 

For example, if the tender has been issued for a sector you've been trying to gain experience in, you can use this for future larger tenders.

In general, it's a good idea to know what the lower and upper limits of the contract value are that will make sense for your business.

In general though, it's a good idea to know what the contract value lower and upper limits are that will make sense for your business.

Experience and Stability

Like it or not, your demonstrated experience and financial stability will have a BIG impact on your likely success rate for tender submissions. If you're just starting, you might want to leave it a year or two before responding to tender opportunities. 

But if you spot an opportunity that seems to have your business written all over it, then there are strategies you can use to give it your best shot. For starters:

1. Highlight the experience of your key people — particularly the experience they've had on similar projects and how many years they've been doing what they do.

2. Clearly demonstrate your understanding of the conditions of the tender response and what it will take to deliver on them. For example, if you're a security service provider, include detailed information showing how you will deliver the services. If you're in the food service business, show how well you understand food safety requirements.

3. Establishing financial stability when you're a relatively new business is challenging. Still, financial projections showing actual versus budget for the period you've been in business are a good place to start. If you have them, you can also add evidence of your bank accounts, line of credit, or bank guarantees in your tender submission.

What's it Going to Take?

If you put the time and effort in to bid, make sure you are very clear about what it's going to take to deliver if your bid is successful. Can you handle the contract with your existing staff? If not, what is the labour pool like in your area, and are you confident you can hire enough skilled people to meet the contract requirements?

Also consider if you need to spend capital buying new equipment, if you'll need to expand your premises or if our internal systems can cope with the extra workload for the tender response.

Still not Sure? Give me a Shout

If you have a tender opportunity but you're just not sure if it's right for you, or if you have one that you need a hand with, shoot me an email, call me at 0400 514579, or fill out this form An initial discussion costs you nothing, so what have you got to lose?

In the meantime, happy tendering!